Bobby Brown Gives First Interview Since Whitney’s Death On TODAY

In his first interview since Whitney Houston’s death, Bobby Brown sits down with Matt Lauer and chats in segments airing Wednesday and Thursday on Today.

Brown says he saw his ex the week before she died. He had dinner with her and their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, and Houston seemed happy.

“She had this, this glow about her that was just, you know, incredible. You know, and I’m– I’m saying to myself, you know, ‘She must be — she must be doing really well,’ because she looked really well.”

He says she was “joking around with, you know, Bobbi Kris and myself at the table. It was just, you know, she just looked like she was in a good place.”

When Lauer asks Brown for his reaction to the fact that some cocaine was found near Houston’s body when she died, he says, “I was hurt. I was hurt … because, you know, me being off of narcotics for the last seven years — I felt that she was, you know, I didn’t know she was struggling with it still. But at the same time, you know — listen, it’s a hard fight. It’s a hard fight to, you know, maintain sobriety that way.”

What about fans, family and friends who said when she died that Brown was not a good influence in her life?

“It makes me feel terrible. But you know, I know differently. I think if anyone ever knew us, if anybody ever spent time around us instead of time lookin’ through the bubble, they would know how we felt about each other. They would know how happy we were together.”

But many say Houston was a victim and that he was to blame for her drug use.

“No, that’s not true. I didn’t get high before I met Whitney.” He adds, “No, I– I — I smoked weed, I drank the beer, but no, I wasn’t the one that got Whitney on drugs at all.”

Brown says Houston was taking drugs “way, way before,” they got together. “Yeah … It’s just — it’s just unexplainable — how one could, you know, (say that I) got her addicted to drugs. I’m not the reason she’s gone. … I can honestly say that — I love that woman wit h– with everything that I am. … And I believe she loved me the same way. We wouldn’t have been able to make the most beautiful girl in the world — without love. And that’s the truth.”

Lauer also talks to three of Brown’s children — Landon, Bobby Jr. and La’Princia — and Brown’s fiancée, Alicia, who told Lauer they want people to know that Brown is not a bad guy.

Says Bobby Jr., “No matter what he does, they just view him that way. They don’t — like, never really give him a chance.”

Says Landon: “I feel like my father’s always had the bad-boy image. So, you know, they just keep followin’ that, you know? Anything that they can take a negative from the situation, they blow it out of proportion and blame him.”

Adds La’Princia, “They don’t see the good part of him that we see every single day. … Everyone makes mistakes in life. Everyone goes through their ups and downs. You can’t be judged forever about one event in your life or — just the bad decisions you’ve made, you can’t always be judged just by that.”